


I'll Get By (As Long As I'm With You)

by Mistressaq



Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1940s, Christmas Fic Exchange, F/F, Queer Revisionist History, for Winter, last minute engagement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-24
Updated: 2019-12-24
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:39:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21923794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mistressaq/pseuds/Mistressaq
Summary: Blu felt ice down her neck, her heavy heart thud in her chest. She dropped the rest of the envelopes, running her shaking fingers over the eleven black letters that wanted to rip her lover away.NOTICE OF CONSCRIPTION-or-a last minute proposal— but at Christmas
Relationships: Cheryl Hole/ Blu Hydrangea
Kudos: 5





	I'll Get By (As Long As I'm With You)

**Author's Note:**

> For: Winter. Request: “I always love a good lesbian au, would love to see something drag race uk themed like something with blu and Cheryl”

Blu felt ice down her neck, her heavy heart thud in her chest. She dropped the rest of the envelopes, running her shaking fingers over the eleven black letters that wanted to rip her lover away. 

CONSCRIPTION NOTICE

She felt her stomach drop to her knees and she rushed over to the stairwell, sitting down hard on the carpeted step. 

She can’t. She can’t go, she can’t be conscripted. It’s been this long. They have enough soldiers, she doesn’t listen to anyone trying to tell her what to do anyway— she’ll only be a hindrance to them. Which means they’ll punish her by putting her on the front lines and—

No. She couldn’t let herself go there. Blu took a few deep breaths, like mum told her to do when she got upset as a tyke. She was always crying. She’d cry over anything, everything. But now, with the love of her life about to be stripped from her arms… her eyes were dry as summer.

Blu’s body knew what she had to do before her mind caught up. She was halfway to Cheryl’s pub by the time she figured it out. 

_I have to marry her._

\---

Cheryl fingered the thread on her ring finger, the tiny double-knotted bow. 

“D’you forget somethin, dearie?” asked a lady in the chair across from her. The woman pointed to the string on Cheryl’s finger. “You know what you’re supposed to remember?”

“Mm? Oh.” Cheryl realized what a string tied around the finger meant to everyone else. “No, I don’t, it’s not. That kind of…” She stared at the thread some more. It still clung to her wedding finger like it was first tied on. Like she hadn’t been staring at it since yesterday. 

“Is it got somethin’ to do with the love bite yer ‘idin under that neckerchief?”

Cheryl gasped and took out her compact to check her neck. She should have let Blu fix it for her this morning. She should have kept her from leaving it there in the first place. 

The lady was laughing; she opened her hand fan and cooled herself. “Didn’t mean to scare ye luv. I’m sure they’ve seen worse.”

Bang on in the nick of time, Cheryl heard them call her name. She all but leapt out of the chair, and followed the nurse down the corridor.

\---

She pushed past Ducky at the front, having scanned the small pub and the few patrons within. Immediate relief washed over Blu when she saw her lover across the dimly lit pub. Daylight still streaked through the window shades, and the hazy electric lamps looked sad in comparison to Cheryl’s halo of golden hair. Always pulled up at work, a few errant strands curling in response to her every movement. 

Someone cleared their throat. Blu broke from her focus on her lover, only then realizing that Cheryl didn’t even know she was there. “Oi!” She shouted, louder than was necessary. “Cherry!”

Cheryl’s head snapped up. Blu watched her lover’s eyes search, her heart filling with joy when Cheryl’s eyes lit up in recognition. Blu allowed the hostess to guide her a few steps over, freeing up the space for guests to get through. She ducked into an unoccupied booth, her eyes eagerly following Cheryl’s every move. The small laugh she gave the customer. Her red-purple lips mouthing _excuse me._

Cheryl made her way over to the booth. Blu jumped out of her seat to greet her. Despite the excitement forever building in her chest, she knew she had to dial it down. She went for a chaste cheek kiss with her hands on Cheryl’s waist. She tucked her fingers beneath Cheryl’s apron. 

They slid into opposing sides of the booth, despite how much they’d like to share a side. It was a workplace after all, and Cheryl had kept this job a record-breaking three and a half months so far. It would be a shame for her to be fired again. “Berry,” Cheryl began, tucking hair behind her ear. “To what do I owe the surprise?”

Blu took in breath, and suddenly realized she had no idea how to explain herself. Cheryl chuckled. “Aw, sweetie, have you forgotten already?”

“No,” Blu’s brow furrowed. “I just… looking for the words.”

Cheryl reached across the table to squeeze her hand. “Well while you figure it out, Mr Angry Eyebrows is wanting more beer.”

Blu nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll be right here.” She watched her lover walk away and sighed. “For the rest of our lives.”

\---

A nurse took her blood, her height, her weight (how rude).

They wanted her to piss in a cup, but Cheryl always got a nervous bladder in doctor’s offices. She wished Blu were here to calm her down. She wished she had more control of her future. She wished she could bolt from this office and not get arrested for skipping out on her civic duty. 

Fed up and panicking, Cheryl tried not to let on how shaky she was when she approached the nurse with her empty cup. “Sorry,” she squeaked. _Woman up,_ she chided herself. “I did try,” she said with more confidence. 

The nurse waved a hand. “‘S alright, dearie. Not the first, won’t be the last. Just sit there and wait for the officer to call you in.”

Cheryl thanked the nurse (did her nameplate say Chips? No, she must be imagining things. She hadn’t had breakfast, that’s what that was) and once again sat on an uncomfortable chair to wait for someone to say her name. And none of them would be saying it like Blu had yesterday.

\---

Blu rifled through her school bag, looking for something, anything, that could do. 

Cheryl paused at the booth. “D’you remember, love?”

“Yeah, actually,” said Blu. “Let me see your hand.”

Cheryl held out her right palm. 

“Shit,” whispered Blu. “Is it the right or the left that’s the right hand?”

Cheryl arched an eyebrow. “The right hand’s the right hand, innit?”

Blu huffed in frustration. She grabbed Cheryl’s right hand, figuring they could fix it later if she chose wrong. She pulled a piece of spare thread and wound it between two of her fingers. Then she grabbed Cheryl’s third finger. 

“You alright, love?” questioned Cheryl. 

“Yeah,” said Blu and she started to wind the thread around Cheryl’s finger. “You might wanna sit down though.”

Skeptically, Cheryl again took a place opposite Blu in the booth. “What are you doing?” she asked through a laugh. 

Blu finished off her work with a bow. Still holding Cheryl’s hand, she showed where she’d tied the loose thread around her girlfriend’s wedding finger. “I’m askin’ you to marry me.”

Cheryl stared blankly, glancing from her lovers face to the string she’d tied on her finger. At last, she broke, gripping Blu’s hand like a vice. On her way out the back door to the alley, she called to her coworker: “I’m goin’ on smoke break!” 

“Ain’t ya _been_ on smoke break fur the last half hour?” sassed the other girl. Blu thought it was Alice, who Cheryl had talked about at home. She remembered the phrase ‘hoity toity twat’ being used to describe the girl. The shoe fit, thought Blu.

Once outside, Cheryl rifled around in her apron for her cigarettes. Huffing in frustration, she started to explain why she’d dragged her lover into the December air after not giving her and answer. “Look I just, before I say anything, I have to know, because something’s set this off, yeah? Something’s sparked this in you, you haven’t thought it through, I just have to know what’s--”

“You’re being conscripted.”

Cheryl’s last cigarette slipped from her limp fingers into the half-frozen slush. All she could do was blink. Blu started to explain herself, and a word got through here and there, but Cheryl’s brain had stopped working. It was all she could do to stiffly cross the space between them and sweep her lover into an embrace.

Blu kept babbling. “I just, I can’t, I can’t let them take you, I can’t let you go without, without you and everyone knowing how I feel about you and this, there’s gonna be no time left, it’s Christmas…” her voice broke. 

Cheryl grabbed her lover by the sides of her face and crushed their lips together. After a few seconds, Blu pulled away. “Promise me this, yeah?”

“Anythin’,” breathed Cheryl. 

Blu covered Cheryl’s hands with her own. She gestured toward the hint of orange and white on the ground. “That’s gotta be the last of that habit.”

Cheryl let out a laugh/exhale. “Tall order, that.” She couldn’t stop the smile that rose to her red cheeks. “But I s’pose, for my future wife… I could try.”

\---

“Cheryl Jean Hole, born on the eighteenth of October nineteen eighteen, is that correct?” Officer Rice’s voice is lazy and nostrilly. He is the exact thing Cheryl imagined a conscription officer to be. 

“Yes, sir.” Cheryl’s arm half-raised to do a salute, but thought better of it.

“And you are unmarried--”

“Actually,” she brightened. It was a fast enough change that the man looked at her directly, over his glasses. Cheryl couldn’t help the joy showing-- she already felt like she was gonna burst from it! “We went to the courthouse just yesterday, can you believe it?!”

Officer Rice did not look half as amused as she, but Cheryl physically couldn’t stop smiling. After a moment, he moved on through the form. “Why, pray tell, did you wait this long to enlist?”

His question struck Cheryl in the chest. “Well I… didn’t think I had to.”

“You felt no sense of duty to serve your country? Do you not love Britain?”

Cheryl felt her lips go white. “Of course I love England-- can be a bit shit at times, you can agree--”

“Then answer the question. Why wait until now, when you are twenty-six years old and able-bodied, to enlist in a war which has been going on for years?”

“I got bloody conscripted, didn’t I?” Cheryl threw up her arms. “And what’s more, I kept waiting for it to sort itself out. Didn’t think I had to be involved in shooting and killing people.”

Offer Rice turned back to his documents. “Whether you will be trusted with a weapon is up to your commanding officer. I wouldn’t trust your type to know which end does the firing.”

Cheryl’s jaw dropped. “You mean me as a woman?”

“Not at all,” said he. “My meaning is you as a pacifist. But no matter, I’m sure you’ll be put to good use somewhere. Now, your experience is in the service industry and dancing; would this be by any happenstance dancing of the ballroom variety?”

“Er, no. Not really.”

“Exotic then?”

“I ‘ave picked up a shift ‘ere and there, zat a problem?” Cheryl challenged.

“We must have a good idea of what _kind_ of people are serving in His Majesty’s armed forces.”

“And he don’t want dyke strippers, is that it?”

\---

They ironed out their game plan over that nicotine-free smoke break. Cheryl would finish up at the pub. She’d duck out early once Peaches showed up for her two-thirty shift. Blu would send one of their friends to pick Cheryl up from work and take her to the courthouse, where a smattering of the rest of their friends would be waiting to take photographs to send out to the families. Someone had to have a camera— didn’t they? The courthouse must have someone there, right? Blu took all this on her shoulders, saying “not to worry, Cherry. I’ve got it. All’s for you to do is show up, yeah?”

More and more, though, Cheryl was finding that she couldn’t clear her head. Within an hour of Blu’s departure, Cheryl’s bottom lip was bloody and sore, and her nail beds were raw. “Get ahold of yourself, Hole,” hissed Alice in passing. Cheryl tried unsuccessfully to trip her coworker, even though she knew she was right.

“I used to bite my nails,” said an old woman. Her husband, like most husbands, didn’t have a voice of his own. The wife did the ordering ‘round here. Cheryl wondered between herself and Blu, who would be the mouth when they settled in like that. God, imagining Blu in a place like this, sagging and wrinkly, and still married to Cheryl…

“Sorry, so sorry, love, I don’t know where my head’s at. What’s that you want?” Cheryl hid her face in her notepad. 

The old lady guffawed. “I was just saying how you’ve got a reminder tied ‘round your finger and it made me notice the state of ye nails! Ooh it made me think o’ when I was a young thing, my fingers were so ugly, you wouldn’t know they were fingers if they weren’t still attached.”

Cheryl gave a polite laugh and extended her hand to view the damages. Looking at the red thread on her finger made her look more closely at the lady. “Actually this here is from my ah, my fella, he’s proposed, but it was so spur-of-the moment he didn’t have a ring did he?”

The lady chuckled. “Oh and he must be a handsome one, your man. Looks like he hasn’t got much in the way of brains.”

Cheryl’s bloody lip flopped open. “Excuse me?”

“I don’t mean any harm.” The old lady reached out and touched the little red bow on Cheryl’s finger. “Just that he’s put it on the wrong hand!”

Cheryl’s face burned with shame as she tried to untie the string, once pulling it off had proved unsuccessful. The next few hours had her constantly trying to get the damned thing off her finger to put it on the right one. By two, she’d almost completely given up. 

Then Viv walked in.

Cheryl and Vivienne had been friends for years, and always when they were together they broke all the rules they could. Viv could be distant, chaotic — there’d been a few months where Cheryl had barely heard from her friend, and feared the worst. But after, when Viv came back, when she got better, just like that it was like no time had passed. So to see her friend walk through that door, Cheryl all but ran into her arms, hitting Viv with the full force of her body. 

“Woah, there, Cherry Cola,” Viv grunted. “It’s early yet. Blu’s called from downtown, they’re gonna squeeze you lot in for end of day.”

Cheryl pulled back. A suspicious feeling was rising in her chest. It didn’t feel like heartburn. Cheryl all of a sudden felt shaky, she started to sweat. “Oh, come along there, soldier.” Vivienne tried to comfort her, but oh, that choice of words on this day…

Realizing her mistake, Viv backtracked. “Shit. Sore subject, I reckon. Sorry love. What I mean is, pull yourself up, go do your work. I’ll be right here for when you get off.”

Cheryl sniffled, and shook herself back to earth. “Right. I can get you some fish’n’chips for while you’re waiting.”

Viv patted Cheryl’s shoulders. “Never you mind, love. I wouldn’t eat here if I was paid to do.”

Cheryl laughed, a real, honest, comfortable laugh for the first time in what felt like ages. A laugh that could last her another four hours.

Thankfully, it didn’t have to.

\---

Cheryl’s face was hot. She had never been excited to be in any way involved in the war. But the possibility that they might not let her in struck up a fury in her guts. “And he don’t want dyke strippers, is that it?”

Officer Rice placed his open hands on the desk in front of him, and he stood over her. His measured volume was undercut by a threatening edge, the kind that’s sharp enough to shave the hair off the back of your neck. “I _highly_ suggest you watch your tone, and show your ranking officer some respect.”

Everything in her wanted to fire back. The words were right there on her tongue. But this wasn’t some chav who’d groped her on the street. She couldn’t break his nose and get away with having taught him a lesson. This man had the power to set her up in the worst possible conditions. He literally had the ability to send her to her death. And if she antagonized him any more, he would. And how that would hurt Blu…

The rest of the interview passed mercifully quick, Cheryl speaking only to answer in the affirmative or negative, or to sign some official document. Officer Rice sent her away, saying they’d _be in touch_ in the coming week. Cheryl shook off the disgust at the thought of being touched by that man.

On her way home from the conscription office, Cheryl bought a pack of cigarettes. Ignoring the far-off sting of guilt, she asked a light from the other guy on the corner. He was one of the American troopers. Not caring enough to try and conversate, Cheryl breathed her smoke in deep. She imagined it filling her up like a balloon and carrying her away.

\---

While Cheryl had been trying to work at the pub as if it were any other day, Blu, Viv, and some of their other friends and colleagues had been busy bees gathering what last-minute decor and supplies they could. Blu and her friend from seamstress school, Kat, raided local flower shops for purple petals. Unfortunately, everything was too expensive, but the shop worker did give them a tin of clippings for fragrance. Blu phoned up Cheryl’s sister, who managed to pop by a church and charm the priest into giving her a single, inch-high, mostly burned out candle. Before leaving to Cheryl’s pub, Viv worked her way into a haberdashery for half a meter of white and blue ribbon, just so they could do a bit of a headband for Blu as a veil. While there, she rented a locket so they could put the fresh clippings in. “It’s like the spirit of a fresh bouquet,” she told Blu.

So when Viv pulled Cheryl into her car (her boyfriend’s car, technically, but he wasn’t in the country to miss it, was he?) she had her put on the locket. 

“Is this one of the herb ones?” Cheryl held it up to her nose.

“Yeah.”

Cheryl smiled a little. “Smells fresh cut.”

Viv ran down the list of things they’d done in the past few hours. Cheryl held a hand to her chest, feeling all soft inside. “You lot did all that?” she asked softly.

“Yeah-- of course we did, Cherry. ‘S the last day before Christmas, we weren’t doin’ a whole lot else.” Viv said it like it took no thought to help Cheryl and Blu today. And she wasn’t finished yet. “And we’ve got it set for you two to take the car and drive just out of town. A one-night-getaway, you know what I mean?” 

“And you’re having us borrow your car?” Cheryl’s voice was tight. She bunched up the fabric of her work dress in her fists. “I can’t ever repay you.”

Viv shook her head. “‘S called friendship, Cher-Bear. Only don’t get too used to me doin’ nice shit for ya.”

Cheryl sputtered a laugh. 

Viv shook her finger. “Not gonna be a regular thing, this. You got that?”

Cheryl held up her hands. “Special occasion, I got it.”

“Good,” said Viv with finality. They’d reached the courthouse. Viv let Cheryl out first so she could find a place to park. Wasn’t so hard these days, with fewer people around to use their cars. 

Cheryl was shaky when she opened the courthouse door. She hadn’t enough time to scan the room before finding herself rugby-tackled by her sister Gina. “Oh my God it’s really happening isn’t it?” Gina had a way of breaking through any wall Cheryl had up for the rest of the world. Her beloved sister was always one to immediately understand her. To know what she was thinking before she’d thought it. It was while Gina was raving at her a mile a minute that Cheryl noticed someone behind her, timidly leaning out from behind a wall. 

Cheryl must have blanched. Gina immediately stopped in her tracks, just as Viv strolled through the door behind them. 

Cheryl’s sister sidestepped to be out of the way. Viv joined her by the side as Cheryl and Blu followed the magnetism that coaxed them together. Their fingers intertwined and they nestled into each other’s arms, just as they’d done hundreds of times before. 

Cheryl ran her fingers over the hairband. 

“Yeah,” said Blu. “The theme is: the wedding spirit, just on short notice.”

Cheryl looked down at her soon-to-be wife with absolute adoration. “It’s perfect.”

There was more time to wait before the signing of papers, so Gina pulled out their parents’ camera to take photos before everyone got all weepy. There was one really nice fireplace in the courthouse, so they took photos in front of it. Viv borrowed some matches off a law clerk and lit the tiny candle to put between Cheryl and Blu. “What’s the candle supposed to do?” Blu asked.

Gina “Ideally, you’d both have one, and one would be lit and one unlit and the one with the lit candle would light the other one so they’re both lit but we’ve only got the one, so.” 

Viv took in a sharp breath and looked at Blu. “Here’s hoping you understood, ‘cause she’s not gonna say it twice.”

Gina sneered. “Oh, shut up, you.”

“Make me.”

“Oi!” Cheryl snapped in front of her friends faces. “Knock it off, you two. I won’t have squabbles at my wedding. Play nice.”

At long last, Blu and Cheryl were called over to the clerk. She was a wiry lady with big teeth all in a line, and she looked on the way to middle age. Her name plate said in scrawly letters: Davina De Campo. “Alright then,” said the clerk. “You lot are wanting a marriage certificate?” They nodded. “I’ll need each of you to write your date of birth on this line and your full legal name on this one. And before the ink is down, the time for cold feet would be now, as what you’re about to sign is a legally binding contract.”

Blu looked at Cheryl. Cheryl looked at Blu. _Do I have second thoughts?_

“I can’t imagine my life without you in it,” said Cheryl. 

Blu bit her lip. A flash of anxiety struck Cheryl in her lungs. 

After a pause, Blu shook her head. “I tend to rush into things. My mum’s always complainin’ about that. But…” she looked into Cheryl’s eyes. “Yeah, no. I think I’ve known this for months. Just got the courage now.” 

Cheryl smiled and brought Blu’s hand to her mouth. 

“Right,” said Divina, clearing her throat, pulling the happy couple back to Earth. “Well, I do feel personally compelled to tell you two, once you’re married, you can kiss the bedroom activities goodbye.”

Cheryl and Blu cracked up in giggles, which they tried to suppress. 

“Yeah, they always laugh at that,” Divina said to herself. “I’ve never been kidding. Alright, I think we’re ready for ink on paper.”

\---

“Hey, don’t take this the wrong way tootz, but you’re lookin’ pretty rough.”

Cheryl looked over. It was the American who’d lit her smoke. Actually, now that she looked closer, that was a red maple leaf on his shoulder. Canadian, then. Same difference. She let out a chuckle, which turned into a shallow cough. She shook her head. “Feelin’ pretty ragged, soldier.”

“Anything I can do to help?” 

He was attractive and kind. Cheryl let go of the tension in her shoulders. “Yeah, actually,” she said. She held out her cigarette again. “Bloody wind’s blown my fag out. Would’ya?”

“Ah, sure, sure, here we go.” 

He re-lit her cigarette, and she made sure to shield it from the elements this time ‘round. “I’m Crys,” he said, holding out his hand for a shake. “Spelled with a _y_ and no _h_. The boys know me as Corporal Tall.”

“I’m Cheryl.” She looked him over once again. “You’re no taller than the average bloke, I reckon.”

“That’s probably because it’s my real surname, not a nickname.”

Cheryl gave a shallow cough. “What-- Corporal Crys Tall? D’you walk out of a circus?”

Crys gave a laugh that sounded a bit like a male witches cackle. “Might as well have, honestly.”

Cheryl shook her head, a smirk rising to her lips. “Can’t decide if Crys Tall is better or worse than Mr and Mrs Hole naming their bouncing baby Cheryl.”

The off-duty corporal’s eyebrows knitted together. “What-- Cherl Hole, Cheryl-- OHHH!” His face lit up in alarm. 

Cheryl nodded sadly. 

“Like ‘share a’--”

“Yeaaaah.”

“And no one… stopped them?”

Cheryl let out a long breath of smoke. “Mum and Dad were very naive. And apparently the people who could have helped would rather let the child suffer.”

They smoked together in a comfortable silence for a while, until Cheryl suddenly remembered something. “Shit. D’you ‘ave a watch on ya by any chance?”

“Yeah, I do.” He pulled up the sleeve on his uniform and showed her the tiny face. “It is… twelve to.”

“Twelve to _what?”_ insisted Cheryl.

“Thirteen hundred. Why, you gotta be someplace?”

She groaned. “Why can’t you just say ‘one’?” Cheryl was already shoving her contraband cigarettes in her bag, quickly finishing off the last dregs before stomping it out. She coughed and wheezed as she tried to force her body to move, picking up speed as she planned a route in her head to get to the pawn shop in enough time to avoid her new wife thinking she’s abandoned her.

\---

True to her word, Viv handed Cheryl and Blu the key to her car when they’d finished signing all the papers (and snapping a couple more photos of course). While they’d been with Davina, Viv and Gina had gone out and scratched wax pencil across the rear window: Just Eloped! 

“You’ll also notice the string and cans on the back,” said Viv as they walked out. “When you reach the inn, do us a favor and put the tins back in the boot. They’ll need returning to the recycle center.”

Blu jumped at Viv with her arms outstretched. Cheryl had to stifle a laugh at her friend’s surprised and slightly unpleasant face. When Blu released Viv, she went over to hug Gina as well. Meanwhile, Cheryl approached her long time friend. “Well,” she said.

“Well,” said Viv. “This is you off.” 

Cheryl took a breath and nodded. “Yeah. I was thinking how I didn’t expect it’d be me who was first married between the two of us.”

Viv shrugged. “Me neither.” 

They stood in awkward silence for a beat, before Cheryl and Vivienne came around at the last second to fall into a warm embrace. 

“Listen,” whispered Cheryl, her eyes stinging in the cold. “Your fella comes back, we’ll do everything proper. Hen party, ugly dresses, the lot of it.”

Viv bit her lip and nodded. “Yeah. Sounds good,” she choked out. 

When the friends parted, if there was red around their eyes, it was because of the smog. 

Their first ride together as a married couple was surreal. Cheryl and Blu could barely meet each other’s eye. And that was somehow very funny. Each felt filled like a hot air balloon. They barely thought proper thoughts, it was all the feeling, the true joy, giddiness; it was like they were lovesick puppies again. Of course, they’d past that stage last year. The sickening sweet stage where everything the other did was pure magic. Now again the very edges of the lovers felt sparkly, full of static electricity. 

When she pulled into Norton’s Inn, Cheryl was astounded she’d made it. She hardly remembered any turns, any traffic stops. It was as if she’d skipped ahead on a record. Nevertheless, Blu was getting out, grabbing the overnight bag she’d packed for the both of them. Cheryl pulled off the strings and tins almost robotically. When she’d finished, she looked to her side, and there was Blu. And there was Blu’s hand, which she took in her own. 

“Wife,” said Blu. Her mouth widened into an unshakable smile. 

Cheryl’s voice was quiet when she echoed the word, almost like if she said it any louder, the world would break. _“Wife.”_

The honeymoon suite was open for them. Wine sat in a bucket of water on a stool. The room was cozy as the rest of the inn: cottage-like, with masonry and wood and the feel of a building that’s been in this same place for generations. It was new for Cheryl and Blu, making love someplace other than Cheryl’s flat. This space was unfamiliar, outside of routine. And when they undressed each other, it was as if for the first time.

Their real first time had been nothing like this— all rushed kisses and feverish rutting, underpinned by the paranoia that if they stopped for breath, stopped to think, one or both women would pull away and leave. 

But they’d just signed the document an hour before. They knew they were not going to leave. They knew there was no place they would rather be, and with no one else. It was for this reason that they memorized each other afresh here. Blu had never pulled the pins out of Cheryl’s bun before in this room. These walls had never heard the soft moans Cheryl let out when Blu massaged the feeling back into her scalp. This bed had never squeaked under them as they lay together. 

Unlike ever before, they took their time. Blu ran her hand down the length of Cheryl, from cheek to shoulder to calf, and back up again. They truly had all night to be together like this. When Cheryl kissed Blu, it was gentle, soft, borderline chaste. After hours of petting, kissing and staring into each other's eyes, after changing into nighties, not bothering with underthings, Cheryl intertwined her fingers with Blu’s. “Wife,” she breathed, and felt Blu’s nipples perk up at the word. “Take me where you want me.”

Blu hummed and pulled her wife in for a kiss. This, while lowering their hands to the bottom of her nightie. Cheryl broke from their kiss to take the nightgown in both her hands and lift the garment up and off Blu’s head in one go. There was that lip, set in confidence even as her cheeks pinkened in the low light. Cheryl pressed her lips up against that confident mouth, and let her fingers untangle. Let them drop to where Blu met the clean sheets, already yearning for her touch.

Like all else on this evening, after a day of rushing around, Cheryl went slow with her hand on her wife’s body. Not too slow, so as to cause boredom. And the nature of the exercise meant speed was gathered. In a while, her wife’s slender legs were over Cheryl’s shoulder and clenched under her arm. Blu’s body roiled, and her face screwed up as if she were in pain. But this was far from their first time, thus Cheryl knew that to think of stopping at this point would bring down a fury from her lover. Her _wife._

“Go on then.” Cheryl’s voice was a sharp whisper. “And try not to wake the whole village while you’re at it.”

Blu’s whole form clenched, her muscles rippling in a fascinating way. Cheryl never tired of watching her like this, all the while knowing she herself was the cause. True to Cheryl’s challenge, Blu climaxed with only a choked whine, like the kind you would hear from a pouting dog. When her breathing returned, it did so heavily, in gasps, each one tinged in a shrill whine. All the while, Cheryl watched on from above, rubbing circles into her wife’s trembling legs. When Blu finally managed to open her eyes again and look up at her wife, she found Cheryl gazing down at her with pride. She shook her head and leaned down so their noses were almost touching. 

“Brilliant.”

\---

A bell clinked above the door, signaling Cheryl’s entrance into the cluttered pawn shop. Immediately she found the eyes of Blu, at the counter five meters away. She was wearing that dirty fur lined coat Cheryl hated when she first saw it. She searched for anger, frustration, even petty annoyance in her wife’s face. Cheryl had the nerve to show up a full half hour late and yet, all Blu did in rebuttal was to run over and sweep Cheryl up in her fur. “Huddle up in here, yeah? You must be half frozen.” 

She looked for anger or disappointment or disgust in her wife’s face when she got close enough to wrap the coat around her. _She has to know,_ Cheryl thought. She has to smell it on me. But Blu gave no indication she’d noticed the air of nicotine that clung to Cheryl’s mouth, hair and clothes. She gave no indication that she’d been waiting any more than five minutes for her to show. That knowledge did something to Cheryl’s guts. May also have been the no breakfast, blood draw, cigarette and frigid run under her belt for this morning. Cheryl was feeling green.

Blu took her by the arm and guided her past old bits and pieces of equipment and antique coin collections. She introduced Cheryl to Jack, a lad with some kind of spine deformity, a lazy eye and a hairlip. In front of Jack were several show drawers full of pawned rings. Most of them were from women’s rings, some from men’s. Blu said how she’d already picked out a couple she knew would be of interest to Cheryl -- they were the men’s, more subdued types -- and a handful of ones she had her eyes on. “Not that I want you to take the string off,” Blu covered. “It’s just, for sanitary reasons…”

“Nah,” said Cheryl. “We may have to take a pair o’ scissors to this thing.”

“Actually,” said Blu, turning to Jack. “D’you have any we could use?”

“Wot miss?”

Blu beamed. She threw her hair over her shoulder like a starlet. “It’s missus now, actually. And scissors.”

Jack murmured “Oh o’ course” and limped away. 

Blu pulled out one of the rings she’d selected for Cheryl. It was a simple silver band with some crosses and half circles carved in. She liked it, but it didn’t speak to her. “I would like something with _a_ stone, at least,” she said. “Not a big one, but…”

Blu made a little noise in the back of her throat and searched with her finger for something specific among the rows and rows of rings. “I ‘ad a good long look while I was waitin’...”

Cheryl winced.

“I know I saw it around this corner-- ah!”

At this point, Jack came back holding a pair of very old, very tarnished kitchen scissors. Cheryl didn’t even want to think about what they’d cut over the years, she just hoped her flesh wouldn’t be added to the list. With teeth clenched, she splayed her right hand open, supported her wrist with her left hand, and allowed her wife to sneak one of the scissor blades under the red string. And snipped.

“Woah!”

“What-- did I hurt you?”

Cheryl examined her finger. “No, but wouldn’t have killed ya to give us a ‘one two three’.”

“Oh, don’t be such a baby. And look at this ring, tell me what you think.”

The ring in question may have worked, if it wasn’t so bloody big. NoOt even the kind of ‘too big’ you could have fixed by a proper jeweller. The thing was made for someone who wanted to wear an onion ring on their finger. “If it was a tenth of the size, it’d be a ‘yes’.” Cheryl shook her head. “But lemme see one of the ones you like.”

Jack left them to take care of another customer, one who might be closer to actually making a purchase. Blu picked up one ring that looked like it was covered in tiny pearls. “Small enough, yeah? Demure, conervative, not too flashy. But it’s also a flower if you can see, I think one of the pieces is missin’ ‘cause there’s a space where one of the pearly petals go but I quite like it, and the diamond in the middle, isn’t that cute?”

Cheryl felt a soft happiness come over her. Seeing Blu admire the ring… if only Cheryl could buy for Blu everything she looked at like that. “You think you’d be alright with a broken piece?”

Blu’s eyes were an intense kind of happy. “Yeah, and I figure, gives us somethin’ to look forward to. The day when we can afford to get it fixed. It’s still pretty in the meantime. I think so, anyway.”

Cheryl felt full in her heart. Full of appreciation for this magical creature in front of her. She couldn’t hide it from her face. 

“What, what’re you lookin’ at me like that for?”

Cheryl let out a laugh/exhale. “I’m just love you, is all.”

Blu scoffed and flapped her hand at Cheryl.

 _God, that’s my wife._ Cheryl shook her head. “Is it the one?” she asked, gesturing at the pearly flower ring.

Blu bit her lip and looked at the other rings. “I had some others I liked, but…” she smiled. “Yeah, I think that’s it.”

Cheryl felt her heart full again. How was it possible she felt this twice in five minutes. She just felt so full, so full of love for Blu, it was like her body wasn’t meant to handle it. She felt like she might cry. Right, better stop that. She looked at the closest overhead light and sniffed. 

Blu said “You tryin’ to sneeze?”

Cheryl snorted and started laughing hysterically. She felt the odd looks from Jack and the other customer, and from Blu herself, but she didn’t give half a shit. 

“What? What’s so funny?”

Cheryl grabbed Blu’s hand and kissed it. Blu pouted her lip and stomped her foot. “You’re impossible, you know that?”

Cheryl straightened and flounced Blu’s own coat at her. “You wouldn’t have me any other way.”

Blu rolled her eyes. “Shut up. Now, pick a ring. How’s about this one?”

They walked out of the pawn shop that day having gone only slightly over budget for Blu’s damaged mother-of-pearl ring and Cheryl’s square diamond band. True to her request, Cheryl got a ring with a single stone inlaid. Their bands didn’t match in the slightest, but who was to care. And who was to care they’d gone slightly over budget? That’s what savings were for anyway. “And besides,” reasoned Cheryl. “Army’s gotta pay more than waitressing.” Blu nodded. “Like, I don’t know how much more,” Cheryl continued. “But it’s gotta be more. It’s gotta, right?”

Blu nodded. “It has to. You’re not facing bullets bringing pints to rude customers.”

Cheryl shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold. “You know, when I first turned up at the shop today, I thought for sure you’d divorce me on the spot.”

“... What?” She’d said it as a half-joke, but Blu’s voice softened with anguish. “What d’you mean?”

Cheryl stopped and placed a hand on Blu’s shoulder. “No! I mean. I know you know I broke the smoking promise. I thought you’d be angry with me.”

Blu shook her head sadly. “Of course not. I just married you. You’d think I’d break it off over a cigarette? Really?”

Cheryl threw up her hands in a desperate shrug. “Maybe? Been dumped for less.”

Blu took Cheryl’s hands in her own. They both had their gloves on, and she missed the connection that would have been there without the gloves. “Cheryl, yesterday we swore to each other, we signed documents, saying we’d made a commitment.”

Cheryl pursed her lips. “Yeah…”

Blu held Cheryl’s downcast face. “You’ve gotta stop assuming the worst, my love. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I’m your wife now.”

Cheryl coughed. “You’re not going anywhere but I might me. They could send me anywhere. I might never see you again.” Fuck, tears. They haven’t rolled over yet, but the chilly air threatened to freeze the water right there in her eyes. 

“Shh, it’s a lot to process. I can only imagine.” Blu petted Cheryl’s arms. “But hey, I’ll be right next to you. Wherever in the world you go.” 

That did it. The tears burned streaks down Cheryl’s rose-colored cheeks. She hid her face in Blu’s fur coat. 

“And just think,” Blu said. “No matter what happens in the future, tomorrow’s Christmas Day. War office’s closed on Christmas Day.” She rubbed Cheryl’s back through her overcoat. “We’ll always have this Christmas. Okay?”

Cheryl nodded and lifted her head from Blu’s shoulder. “Okay. Home now?”

Blu smiled. “Home. To start the night with rum and eggnog.”

Cheryl moaned. “Can there be extra rum?”

Blu laughed. “Whatever we want. It’s our first Christmas as married people.”

“Mm? ‘S that special, then?”

Blu chuckled. “It just means we get to do naughty things on Christmas without the Virgin Mary and Christ Child judging us.”

Cheryl rolled her eyes. 

“Okay,” Blu admitted. “They’ll probably still be judging us-- just let me have this.”

“This Christmas, you can have whatever you want.” Cheryl pressed her freezing cold nose to Blu’s cheek. 

Blu playfully pushed her back. “What if I want a pony?”

Cheryl barked a laugh. “I’ll draw you one.”

Blu scoffed in mock outrage. “Good thing no one’s hired you as Santa.”

“No they should,” Cheryl protested. “I’d give ‘em exactly what they deserve.”

“And what’s that?” asked Blu. “Nothing?”

“Rubbish!” said Cheryl at the same time.

And off the newlyweds went, into the first floor of Cheryl’s apartment. Which was now _their_ apartment. To eat Christmas cookies and drink rum and eggnog (with extra rum for Cheryl) and sleepily make love for Christmas Eve.


End file.
